Review by Booklist Review
Ages 5^-8. Pilkey spins a rhyming tale of gargoyles, which were originally set in place on cathedrals to keep away evil spirits, and which then become scorned as "`grotesque!' and `horrid!' / `those beasts don't belong on the house of the lord!'" The gargoyles' grief is assuaged by angels, who not only comfort them but also take them on flights as they sing songs over the world: "god bless the rain, and the stormclouds that bring it. / god bless the music, and the voices that sing it. / god bless the ones who sing everything wrong. / god bless all creatures who do not belong." The verse in the first half of the book is strained and a tad maudlin (and the convergence of two trendy subjects, gargoyles and angels, seems facile as well), but the second half, with the song of the angels, is exquisitely moving. Pilkey's illustrations in dark purples, blues, and greens are moody and compelling, showing protective angels walking alongside homeless people and even one sitting by a lonely patron in a diner (an obvious homage to the famous Edward Hopper painting). The darkness of the pictures is relieved by large stained glass windows, many depicting musicians; the comically endearing gargoyles also offset the somber mood. By using the popular gargoyles as his messengers, Pilkey will catch the attention of many children who otherwise might be oblivious to the pain of the outcast. --Susan Dove Lempke
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Angels befriend the grotesque church guardians in this comforting story. "Pilkey imbues these dreamy vistas with electricity, the skin-prickling feeling of witnessing a special event," said PW. All ages. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-4-Gargoyles that long ago were "set...on perches to guard and protect and watch over churches" have over time become objects of fear and derision. Now they are sad and full of pain and their "stony old hearts" are broken. But graceful young angels arrive on a stormy night, one for each gargoyle, to comfort them and fly with them over the earth. The angels cast God's blessing on all creatures. Even the grieving, the lonely, and the homeless are shown to have guardian angels to comfort and protect them. This simple story with its dubious message that all is right with the world is told in doggerel-like couplets with a number of forced rhymes. The neatly boxed and bordered poetry, four lines to a page, is imposed on spectacular illustrations. The richly colored, sculptural, textured paintings fill the double-page spreads. Echoes of medieval stained glass, city buildings outlined against brilliantly hued night skies, and lonely streets inspired by Edward Hopper blend in a sequence of dramatic pictures through which the gargoyles and their attendants continuously fly. Gargoyles and angels are popular icons and will certainly attract notice, but Pilkey's trivialized, sentimental story does not equal the high quality of the illustrations.-Shirley Wilton, Ocean County College, Toms River, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Lonely gargoyles find comfort and protection from angels, and together they fly through the night, blessing other 'tortured and taunted' souls. The dramatic artwork is suffused with rich jewel tones, but the rhymed text becomes monotonous. The notion that sad, brokenhearted people have angels that love and protect them is sentimental, and the theme of alienation and despair is very adult. From HORN BOOK 1996, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Pilkey (The Paperboy, p. 141, etc.) joins the medieval fray with a bucolic approach to the journey of gargoyles from the cathedrals of the Middle Ages to modern cityscapes. The half-comic, half-grotesque, goblin-like animals and monsters from medieval religious art, once representing evil and temptation from a dragon-infested underworld, here become contemporary symbols of the misunderstood, in contrast to the spooky black-and-white gargoyles in Eve Bunting and David Wiesner's Night of the Gargoyles (1994). In rhyming pairs of couplets, Pilkey tells of the lonely, the lost, the left behind, all in lowercase type: ``god bless the ones who sing everything wrong/god bless the ones who do not belong.'' Blue angels rescue shadowy gargoyles and wing their way amidst cathedrals and stained glass windows, above skyscrapers, across a deep blue-and-purple night. Pilkey infuses his skies with much of the same fantasy inventiveness as Chagall; however, the solitary spread that pinpoints a specific setting creates for readers a visual pun of sorts--gargoyles hover as witnesses to angels who land in the well-known Edward Hopper painting of a diner, Night Hawks. Perhaps the quintessential American image of loneliness and isolation, the scene proves ``that the souls of the lost weren't really alone.'' The constrained cadences are more statement than story, weighing down the lilting paintings with their hopeful but heavy message. Still, readers will find solace in this modern-day answer to existentialism. (Picture book. 6-10)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
